HOW I T WORKS
Turning The T.I.D.E. (Teaching Internet Development Education) works by pairing up kindergartners with fifth graders to help the  younger students to learn how to use the computer and PowerPoint. The kindergartners are taught how to go onto the Internet and browse different sites to get pictures of items they need for their PowerPoint presentation and journals, or to use clip art graphics for multimedia presentations using PowerPoint to create a template that they can use for presentations. They create cards where the pictures are placed relating to the alphabet: A-apple, B-boy, etc. 

THE STUDENTS
The program was started with one fifth-grade class of 24 students and one kindergarten class of 18. Groups of four, in pairs of two, were worked with at one time, or four fifth graders or four kindergartners, depending on the schedule. They met two times a week for 50 minutes in the classroom or the lab, depending on wherever they had access to the Internet. 

THE STAFF
Zina Burton-Myrick is the Technology Instructional Specialist (TIS) at the Harriet Tubman Learning Center and has been teaching for 13 years. She started the program Turning the T.I.D.E. two years ago when she taught ESL. She continued last year when she had a fifth-grade class and taught them PowerPoint. She decided to build on the program when she became the TIS and started working as a mentor  with a kindergarten teacher. She received an IMPACT II Adaptor Grant in 1988 for a literacy project. She also won a Polaroid Contest— ‘My Teacher and Me’— in 1990, and conducts parent  workshops in technology. 

WHAT YOU NEED
Management strategies for computer, demonstration, and room arrangement are the key. The classrooms should be set up in clusters of four. Internet access is needed, as is Microsoft PowerPoint and Word. There are various technology organizations that provide PowerPoint training for teachers, as well as Project Smart work-shops through the Board of Education. It is helpful to have a paraprofessional to help with the kindergartners for this program, but it is not necessary.

OVERALL VALUE
The best feature of this program is that children can learn independently or cooperatively at their own rate. There is no failure with the program and self-esteem is boosted. Children get to show their creativity, talent, and skills by teaching younger students. ‘Each one, teach one!’ The learning standards addressed by this project  are Learning and Self-Management Tools and Techniques (A4a) and Tools and Techniques for Working with 0thers (A5).